Sports

As far as the boxing world is concerned, there is only one thing going on during the month of September. Next week’s showdown between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez is being billed as the fight of the decade, and while it certainly isn’t that, it is the first time in a long time that Mayweather is fighting someone who is even close to being on his level. Win, lose or draw, when it comes to this bout, nobody can accuse boxing’s pound-for-pound king of taking on an easy foe.

Of course, while all eyes remain firmly fixated on what’s going to happen on Sept. 14, there is still life beyond that. Most notably, Manny Pacquiao’s November showdown against Brandon Rios. While that match-up isn’t significant because of who the Filipino star is fighting, it is pretty vital because of its ramifications. If Pacquiao loses – he’s done fighting. If he wins – he’s more or less right back where he was prior to his back-to-back losses to Timothy Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez.

Recently, World Boxing Council president Don Jose Sulaiman participated in an interview where he admitted that he’s love to see the winner of Mayweather-Alvarez take on Pacquiao.

“I sincerely hope that the winner will meet Manny Pacquiao,” he said. “Manny is my idol, whatever happens I will always feel very, very proud of him as he was a WBC champion and I still believe that he is.”

The really funny thing about that statement is that it pretends as though Pacquiao doesn’t have a fight scheduled this year. A fight that he could very easily lose, if he doesn’t bring his A-game.

As has been mentioned on numerous occasions: if Mayweather beats Alvarez, and if Pacquiao beats Rios, that’s a perfect storm for a super fight. However, neither of those things is guaranteed. Mayweather is taking on a very tough young boxer; Pacquiao will be testing his chin out for the first time since getting knocked out against a guy who never stops moving forward.

The winner of Mayweather-Alvarez will unquestionably be boxing’s biggest star for the foreseeable future. Him definitely getting a match versus Pacquiao as his reward is far less certain.